The race that changed everything
by Groxbros
Summary: When a tragic accident at a speedor race puts Laval in a really bad condition, everyone begins to fear for the worst. No one believes that he can be helped, even the doctors themselves. Will Laval be able to recover? Or will Laval soon meet his oblivion?
1. Day 1

"Let the race begin!" the eagle announcer yelled, signaling for Leonidas to strike the explosive powder ball with his crossbow.

The racers took off immediately, Rogon quickly finding himself in the lead for some strange reason.

"How the hell did Rogon get up there?" Worriz thought to himself, passing up Eris and Gorzan.

This month's racing course was easier than normal. There weren't many of the more challenging obstacles there'd be in your typical race. It was instead filled with sharp, jagged rocks and rough terrain. Also, there was absolutely no water this time; good for Laval, but bad for Cragger.

Laval and Cragger were traveling at the same speed, directly aside from each other as they sped past Worriz and Rogon.

Worriz growled in frustration as he was left in a cloud of dust created from the friction of his superiors' speedors as they rode past him.

Rogon was in for a surprise as Cragger and Laval sped him up easily, leaving Gorzan on a collision course with him.

"Dude, pull back!" Gorzan yelled, trying to swerve away from Rogon.

"Oh, no!"

Their speedors hit each other head on, causing both Gorzan and Rogon to fly out of their vehicles.

Rogon landed face first on the ground, upside down. "I did rather good today, I guess." he said to himself, rubbing his head.

So far, the race was a breeze for Laval and Cragger, who were the top two in lead within a mere thirty seconds of the race's start. Cragger had the upper hand as he'd previously practiced speedor control and maneuvering for the past month. "I guess I'm the winner this time." he said, speeding past Laval.

Eris was left pretty far behind in the race, competing with a very aggressive Worriz as they both passed through a crevasse filled with very jagged, sharp rocks.

Sounds of cheering coming from spectators filled the atmosphere as Cragger was nearing the finish line. Eris had already passed Worriz by this point as he had crashed and flew into a puddle of muddy water and was about to pass Laval, but that's when she noticed something strange.

"Laval is going much faster than normal, but didn't Cragger just pass him up?" she thought to herself.

Laval's speedor was rapidly gaining velocity all of a sudden, which would normally be a good thing for him, right? He was starting to catching up with Cragger, though.

"No, this isn't normal…" Laval thought to himself, trying vigorously to put the brakes on his speedor.

"Something's not right here, folks, " the eagle announcer shouted.

"Laval's speedor seems to be gaining more and more speed for whatever reason!"

Longtooth began to look slightly distressed. "Hey, Lagravis, does Laval usually travel that fast when he's racing?"

"No, he most certainly doesn't."

"At that rate, he'll end up in a nasty crash."

Gorzan was out of the race, but he was still in the track. Laval sped past him far, far faster than normal. "Laval, you're traveling too fast, like, dude!"

"I'm trying to stop it, Gorzan, but it won't budge!"

'Laval, watch out for that tall wall in front of you!"

It was too late…

Laval crashed and flew out his speedor, flying head first into a very hard, rocky wall. He hit his head, and a very loud, horrible thud was heard as he fell back to the ground.

The entire crowd of spectators went silent, some even gasping as they saw him hit the ground lifelessly.

"Laval, no!" Cragger yelled, panicking as he jumped out of his speedor and ran towards him.

"Oh, god…"

A large pool of blood began to flow out of Laval's bruised skull, the lion showing not the slightest sign of movement. Meanwhile, many of the spectators in the crowd were screaming the moment they saw blood.

Worriz was still far behind in the race, so he was still clueless as to what'd happened.

"What's everyone screaming for?" he said to himself, starting his speedor back up.

Lagravis looked terrified, appearing to be nearly hysterical as he turned his head towards Leonidas and Longtooth.

"Leonidas, Longtooth, get the doctors, now!"

They obeyed him almost immediately, running past Lennox, who was giving a hand gesture to the eagle announcer to cancel the race."

The eagle nodded from a distance, waving back to Lennox as he lowered his microphone. "Well, citizens of Chima, there appears to have been a horrible, horrible accident and the race will now be canceled immediately." he said.

The doctors still weren't there yet. Cragger, Eris and Gorzan surrounded the unconscious, bleeding Laval, screaming and yelling at him, asking him if he was okay.

"His head's bleeding, dude!"

"We need to stop the bleeding before anything else, quickly!"

"Where the hell are the doctors right now?"

"Stop shaking him, Cragger, he's out cold!"

As worried spectators were talking about the accident, Leonidas and Longtooth were surprised to see that doctors were already on their way, stopping just near the entrance of the lion gate to see at least five medics prepared with a stretcher.

"Leonidas, help us carry this down the stairs." one of them commanded, trying to project their voice over the incredibly loud background noises of screaming and yelling coming from the crowd of spectators.

"What took so long, and how'd you already know?" Longtooth asked.

"Luckily, Lothar just so happened to be watching the race from the main gate, so when Laval crashed, he came to us immediately." one of the medics replied as he ran down the stairs.

Worriz was gently speeding towards the end of the obstacle course, still curious as to why he was hearing so much screaming. "An accident, and the race is canceled?" he thought to himself. "That sucks. I wonder which idiot crashed this time."

That was when he found out…

He put his speedor to a stop immediately as he saw everyone gathered around an unconscious figure.

"Oh… man… Laval…"

The doctors had finally arrived, prepared with a wooden stretcher and a kit that would help with the bleeding.

"Move back, all of you. We need to get him inside, fast." one of the doctors shouted, pushing Eris and Cragger out of the way.

Meanwhile, Lagravis looked out into the distance, trying to make out who was next to Laval besides the frenzy of panicked doctors.

"Okay, so Cragger, Eris, Worriz and Gorzan are there." he said to himself, squinting his eyes. "Cragger was the one directly behind him just before the crash, so he'll be able to tell us more about what happened."

Back at ground zero, Worriz sprinted over to Eris, passing the doctors up as they carried Laval away on their stretcher. "What happened to Laval, and why's he unconscious and bleeding out of the head?" he asked, scratching his head with a rather calm look.

"His speedor completely lost control and rammed into something, sending him headfirst into a hard wall." she replied.

"Ouch, that sounds like a painful way to go out."

"No, Worriz, it wasn't. He went unconscious nearly immediately."

Eris walked away without saying another word, nervous and frightened for Laval. There were lion guards surrounding Cragger, pointing their spears at him for whatever reason as if he'd done something wrong.

"Guards, calm down!" Lagravis yelled, aggressively shoving them away as he walked towards the crocodile.

"Lagravis, did I do something wrong?"

"No, follow me, Cragger. I just want to ask you a few questions about the accident."

Lagravis turned around and gave a gesture to Cragger to follow him, also gesturing for the lions to lower their spears.

The medics were taking Laval back into the temple, spectators were leaving, and Lagravis was about to ask Cragger questions about the accident.

Why'd Laval's speedor malfunction the way it did?

How much damage did Laval's head suffer?


	2. Update:

This isn't a new chapter, but instead a little news.

First off, I was really excited when I saw that the first chapter got reviews very fast. I have gotten started on the next chapter and I'll release it soon. And since school just started for me again, my posting might slow down a little. My school's pretty strict and teachers give homework, like, every single day.

The next chapter, hopefully, will be released within one or two weeks.


	3. Chapter 2: Day 2

"What caused that accident?" Eris could not stop asking herself that question. She was in the eagle library; she wasn't reading though. She just couldn't stop worrying about him. "Speedors usually don't go haywire like that." Oceans of thoughts and worries drowned at her head. "Laval, whatever happens, please don't die."

It'd been a day since the accident, and lion doctors would not leave Laval's sight, swarming around him like flies as they tried to get a better grip on his condition. Most of these doctors didn't look very cheerful at all, almost as if all emotion had been completely sucked out of them.

Lagravis opened the door. "How is he?" That was his first question before anything else.

"Not good, Lagravis." one of the doctors replied, taking a quick glance down at Laval. "What we know now is that he is suffering from very serious head trauma." another one said, quickly writing down notes on his tablet.

"Can you fix him? That's what I really want to know."

Lagravis walked past the doctors and stood over Laval, yet he didn't get a single response from him.

"Laval? Can you hear me? This is your father!"

There was still no response. Laval's eyes were only halfway open, making him appear to be awake. In reality, he wasn't even aware of anything around him.

One of the doctors put his paw on Lagravis's shoulder in sympathy. "Lagravis, he might be unconscious right now."

"Doctors, I'm begging you. Please fix my son. That's all I care about now." You could hear the worry in his voice very, very clearly. The room was entirely silent, doctors not even daring to speak up once more as Lagravis left and closed the door behind him.

A doctor waited until the sound of footsteps had dissipated. "We absolutely have to save him." His voice was deep, low and full of determination. Others in the room started to stare at him as if he were absolutely insane.

One of them stood up from their chair angrily. "But how? We've never dealt with something like this before!" Silence filled the room briefly for just another moment, then other doctors began to nod their heads in agreement, glancing back at each other sharply. They all murmured and whispered the same negative thing.

"We can't save him."

"He's absolutely right."

"He's going to die."

"Maybe he won't die, but still - "

"It doesn't matter. We can't help him."

The doctor that was so eager and determined from earlier had become completely enraged at what the others were saying. He grabbed a glass from the shelf next to Laval's bed and threw it on the floor. Everyone jumped up from their chairs and stopped talking immediately.

"You're all worthless excuses, nothing but cowards and fakes!" He grabbed yet another glass and threw it on the floor. "You all have no idea how Lagravis would feel if his son died."

Another doctor stood up from his chair, and cleared his throat. "It doesn't matter, I tell you. Laval's a lost cause."

Small gasps were heard from a few other doctors in the room, as if they thought he'd said something completely profane.

The other doctor grinned sarcastically. "A lost cause, you say?" He grabbed the entire shelf next to him and pushed it down, making a very loud, crashing noise that could surely be heard outside of the room. Tiny bits of glass and wood chips slid across the floor as other doctors slowly pushed back in their chairs.

His hands were wide up in the air, his face covered in a giant, sarcastic smile. "You're a lost cause, you see."

The other doctor took a few steps back, cautiously stepping around small bits of glass. "Please, cut it out. You're making a huge scene and a huge mess."

A passing lion soldier in the hall outside had heard the loud noise and peeked into the room through the door. "What's going on in here?" he questioned suspiciously.

Everyone in the room began to look around at each other nervously. The giant mess on the floor from the collapsed shelf was so obvious that no one even bothered to answer back.

"Well, what happened?" the guard further questioned.

The doctor who had pushed the shelf down in the first place gave a bland stare at him, placing his hands behind his back to make everything seem a little more civilized. "Everything's fine, soldier. One of us had clumsily ran into the shelf and made it fall down."

Everyone could tell the guard wasn't buying any of it.

"That's the stupidest thing I've heard all day." he said, standing directly in the middle of the door entrance with his hands in his pockets.

One of the other doctors sitting down stood up and laughed. "I can assure you, sir. Everything is fine in here. It was just an accident."

The guard sucked his teeth lazily and walked away. "Whatever," he sighed. "you guys better fix Laval up real good."

Doctors pretended to nod their heads cheerfully as his the echoes of his footsteps became lower and lower.

Once he was gone, a doctor peeked out of the door to see if he was still there. He turned his head back into the room and exhaled deeply. "Well, if you really want to help Laval out, then we really need to clean this mess you made."


	4. Chapter 3: Road To Recovery

The past few days since the accident had been, well, just the same. There were mountains of the most rather advanced medical equipment Chima had at the time, all surrounding Laval's bed. Lagravis checked in on him as usual, the room was a constant pain to walk around in, and the sound of heavy snoring was common. Things were getting a bit easier for doctors, too.

Seizures were an issue, though, as they were unpredictable and occasionally violent. Restraining Laval did not help very much, being that he constantly bit his tongue even under the pinning hand of a doctor above him. And because of that, bed sheets were frequently changed, blood stains from previous episodes being an obvious reason. Occasionally, a doctor would even try jamming stuff into Laval's mouth to keep him from biting down too hard on something, like his tongue, of course.

Today, Eris came to see Laval. It was her first priority before anything else; she skipped through a majority of her morning routine. Gently pushing away lion soldiers, she made her way into the halls. She carefully made out the numbers on top of the doors as she walked. Once she located Laval's room number, she sprinted in.

Two doctors in the room glared at her with a deadpan expression. One of them rolled towards her in his chair, kicking his legs back and forth.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"I came as early as possible. Want to see Laval now."

The doctor leaned his head back. "Oh, right. All yours, miss."

Laval turned his head up to Eris; he looked at her drunkenly. She smiled nervously, cupping her hands together.

"Eris, you … came."

His voice was low, and very weak. Eris leaned closer to him so she could hear. The air was extremely dusty, and spider webs clung onto corners of bookshelves. Doctors were not very considerate for keeping Laval's room clean while they were there; they were too focused on monitoring his vital signs. Books were littered all over the floor pertaining to medical science and lion anatomy.

"That's right, Laval. I'm not sure why no one else would come." Eris reached down and picked up a thick, blue book from the floor. It was labeled, _**"Medical Science, Volume five. Head anatomy."**_

Laval exhaled slowly with his mouth open. He tapped his fingers around under the bed sheets, and rolled his head from side to side.

"I know why Cragger's not coming. He feels guilty, like it's his fault. It's really not."

It had been two days since Laval was consciously aware; doctors cheered when he spoke for the first time. There was laughter, relief, and the smell of champagne bottles being opened as they began to celebrate. The level of drinking was ridiculous that night, almost to the point where countless noise complaints from neighboring rooms were made. Laval did not speak much after that, and he fell back into a deep sleep as the celebration continued.

Lagravis found out the next morning, and came to see Laval immediately. He brought with him a small, cut apple.

"_Here, son. So glad you recovered; hope you can still eat." _

_Laval turned his head away from the apple, groaning loudly in refusal. Lagravis placed the apple on a wooden stool next to the bed, and leaned over. He put his paw above Laval's forehead._

"_Laval, your temperature's -"_

"_Dad, want the apple now."_

"_Ah," Lagravis grabbed the apple from the stool and gave it to Laval. His paws moved around oddly as he tried to get a good grip of the apple, but his vision was extremely blurry. _

_Lagravis snatched the apple back up and split it in two, then placed a piece near Laval's mouth. _

"_I think this'd be easier for you, son." he said._

Eris looked out through the window. "I'm sure you're right, you know. He's been devastated since the accident, Laval."

There was no reply. Laval had fallen back to sleep.

She sighed, and left out of the room, dragging with her the same thought she had from the beginning.

"_Oh, come on, Laval."_

Cragger, back at the swamp, was slouched down in his throne; he was daydreaming. And Crunket was watching him, too. She was worried about Cragger ever since he started staying at that one spot for the past three days. For her, the accident caused just as much damage to Cragger mentally and emotionally as Laval had suffered physically.

"Cragger, my sweetheart, is everything alright?" She put her hands on her hips; you could see the worry in her eyes.

"No, Mom. Just thinking about … clouds."

She scoffed sarcastically. "No, Cragger, something's wrong. Tell me what it is. It's fine to tell your mother."

The sound of conversation between seven crocodile guards was heard in the distance. Casual stuff was being discussed, events, jokes, previous day's encounters, and bland stereotypes to other tribes; sounds of laughter, chuckles, guffaws, and play fighting. Crominus just got back from a joyride in his cruiser; guards went silent and saluted simultaneously as he walked by.

Typically, Cragger would just keep trying to change the subject, jumping from this to that. But this time he felt like he had something big to reveal, even though there was nothing he was hiding. Guilt, or false guilt, as it would more accurately be described, was becoming unbearable for him. Crunket was still standing there ,patiently waiting for an answer.

"Well, whenever you're ready to tell me, Cragger…"

Flash forward to six days after the accident, and Laval is already able to lift himself halfway out of bed. Doctors checked on him at least seven times each day; they came to either bring meals, check vitals, or simply have conversations to keep him company. Eris held to the promise she made herself to keep visiting each day, and it really helped Laval. Bladvic, of all people, actually visited twice on the fifth day. And, surprisingly, Bladvic did not fall asleep immediately.

The two would mostly exchange funny stories and jokes, and talk about their lives in general. Bladvic would sometimes watch Laval sleep, which would also make him sleep. Isn't that something? When he wasn't asleep with Laval, he'd carelessly play around with his medical equipment, too. By evening, Bladvic was already gone.

Seizures were becoming much less frequent as the days passed. Laval would simply gaze out through the open window and stare into the sky admiring the clouds. Lagravis even took it upon himself to look over medical science and anatomy for a few hours, reading through five to ten pages whenever he got the chance. It interested him, to say the least, especially the parts on the anatomy of the skull.

When night came, a doctor would check Laval's temperature, and give him a glass of water.

A simple "Thanks." was the reply the doctor would always hear as he walked off.

Eris went over to the wolf camp to try and persuade Worriz to see Laval. As obvious and predictable as it's going to sound, it was not easy.

"Sorry, I don't really see how _looking_ at Laval's gonna help him get better."

"Come on, you always have to be so difficult! Only thirty minutes, you hear?"

"Nah."

"Fine, darn you!"

You could argue that Worriz simply didn't want to be bothered with it, or, maybe he just didn't care. The truth in the matter is, he did. He was actually worried about Laval just as much as everyone else. He didn't want to admit it out loud, though. Whenever someone would bring up the topic, he'd suck his teeth, turn away, and put on a fake smile.

"Don't care. He'll heal on his own." was what he'd always say.

**December 9, 1030. **

Going up to ten days after the accident, things were looking better than ever. Laval was able to lift himself out of his bed entirely and walk around the halls of the lion temple. Eris was absolutely relieved, and Lagravis felt like he had dodged a huge chi pulse, when doctors officially announced that Laval was supposedly fully recovered. Cragger did not seem too cheerful, on the other hand; he did finally see Laval, but Laval had to come over to him.


End file.
